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Your Smartphone is Your Computer

Many tend to use their phones for all kinds of computing tasks now that they have become powerful enough to handle it. The one hold back to this seems to be the interface. While typing or reading something relatively short is fine, the small touch screen experience is not most comfortable for long hauls.

Multiple device makers have noticed the desire for some to want to use their phone as the one and only computing stop and have started to make devices that provide a full desktop or laptop experience from a connected smartphone. While these are not the first solutions for this, it seems are though this concept is picking up the pace lately. With multiple crowd funded projects and major manufacturer projects being shown off.

Meant as an accessory for the Galaxy S8 and Note 8 lines, the DeX allows users to use they high end Galaxy smartphones as the core of their desktop experience. Plugging one of these phones into the DeX dock will give the end user a full desktop oriented user interface with all of the apps and information from their phone.

The Sentio Superbook is a more universal solution that works with any modern Android smartphone that supports their app and USB OTG (this last requirement is true for most phones that have a Snapdragon SoC from the past couple of years as well as some other SoCs). Attaching a phone to the Superbook gives the user a laptop experience backed by your phone's computing power, and the Sentio app’s user interface. The Superbook battery also keeps the device charged.

A more DIY solution is to use a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard with your phone. While this is not as convenient as either of the other two solutions, it is still far better than doing extensive research or content creation on a touchscreen keyboard. This is especially doable on modern Android implementations that allow split screen multitasking. Any phone with a screen above 5” should allow for this to be a somewhat usable solution.
Another optional piece for the DIYer is an MHL cable that will let you attach your phone to any screen with an HDMI port. That in conjunction with any app that emulates a desktop like interface, such as Sentio’s own app, will make your phone feel similar to that of a desktop computer.